Example embodiments disclosed herein pertain to digital electronic devices used to capture information. More particularly, example embodiments disclosed herein pertain to devices used to capture handwriting and related metadata.
Handwritten notes have been used throughout recorded history as a convenient way to record information. Although the technology for producing paper and writing implements such as pens and pencils have changed somewhat over the years, the actual methods for writing handwritten notes have gone virtually unchanged for millennia. This fact is a testament to the convenience and effectiveness of this form of recording information.
With the advent of electronic computers, various attempts to improve upon handwritten notes have been made. Notably, “Personal Digital Assistants” (PDAs) and “Pen Computers” have been developed to capture handwriting and provide various organizational services.
Handwriting recognition is often provided in PDAs and Pen Computers in order to obtain the benefits of being able to search and edit the information.
Handwriting recognition is the ability of a computer to receive intelligible handwritten input. The image of the written text may be sensed “offline” from a piece of paper by optical scanning (optical character recognition). Alternatively, the movements of the pen tip may be sensed “online,” for example by a pen-based computer screen surface.
Early attempts at handwriting recognition suffered from recognition accuracy problems. It is generally understood that recognition algorithms do not have the contextual perception of a human reader, and thus have difficulty capturing handwritten information. Even human beings sometimes have difficulty interpreting handwriting.
Palm launched a successful series of PDAs based on the Graffiti® recognition system. Graffiti® improved usability by defining a set of pen strokes for each character. This narrowed the possibility for erroneous input, although memorization of the stroke patterns did increase the learning curve for the user.
In recent years, several attempts were made to produce ink pens that include digital elements, such that a person could write on paper, and have the resulting text stored digitally. The success of these products is yet to be determined.
It has become clear that real time handwriting recognition places an undue burden on a user when he is taking notes—the very time he is concentrating on the subject of his note, he is interrupted with the need to correct recognition errors, or to cope with a new form of writing such as Graffiti®.
The tactile sensation of writing on paper is also diminished when using a typical PDA or pen computer. Rather than the familiar padded surface of a pad of paper, and the familiar drag which stabilizes the writing implement, one is presented with a surface that is hard and which has dramatically less friction. Users are forced to compensate by stabilizing the pen themselves. This unfamiliar mode of writing may also intrude on a user's thought processes when writing about the subject of a particular note.
Post-it notes, invented and manufactured by 3M, is a piece of stationery with a readherable strip of adhesive on the back, designed for temporarily attaching notes to documents, computer displays, and so forth. While now available in a wide range of colors, shapes, and sizes, the most common size of Post-it note is a 3 inch square, trademark canary yellow in color.
Post-it notes have emerged as a convenient medium for informal notes for recording reminders, phone numbers, phone messages, etc. They feature a low-tack adhesive strip that enables each note to be easily attached and removed without leaving marks or residue. Usage of Post-it Notes is ubiquitous. This kind of note taking represents a very high standard of convenience at the moment of note taking. The user simply writes on the note pad, removes the note, and subsequently places the note in a prominent place as a reminder, or on a document as an annotation, etc.
The electronic devices of the prior art fail to achieve the level of convenience in note taking that is achieved when writing a Post-it note. What is needed is a means to combine the convenience of Post-it notes with the benefits of electronic capture for transmissibility, searching, and editing. Unfortunately, the prior art is limited in that it does not provide any such solution.
These and other limitations of the prior art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the following descriptions and a study of the several figures of the drawing.